What to learn after HTML & CSS

vms_designs

Hi,
I'm fairly new to web development and considering my brother's vast interest in web design and wordpress , who happens to be an excellent graphics designer, i decided to learn the development part and be a help to him in near future. I have already finished the Head First HTML & CSS book (a couple of days ago) and finding myself in a huge dilemma which route to take from here, considering my thrust for getting efficient in wordpress (to team up with my brother) and a possible future as a proficient web developer for myself. I know it'll take me a good 2-3 years time to be fluid in web development but i have a lot of spare time to work on my skills.
I'll keep working on HTML & CSS along with anything new i get my hands on, since the book centered its focus heavily on the basics.
Here my few options i have opted:
Head First Wordpress
Head First HTML5 programming
Head First PHP & MySQL
Head First Javascript
Head First Jquery

Please recommend me the order in which i should read the books i mentioned. I prefer Head First series because of their excellent narrative style which can make even the most boring subject look interesting.

Thanks in advance!

Redefinewebs

HTML Means : HyperText Markup Terminology (HTML) is the main markup language for creating sites and other information that can be proven in a web web web browser.

CSS Menas:

1.CSS seems to be for Streaming Style Sheets
2.Styles figure out how to demonstrate HTML elements
3.Styles were involved to HTML 4.0 to fix a problem
4.External Style Linens can protect a lot of work
5.External Style Linens are stored in CSS files

I would also suggest learning a CSS framework like "LESS" , basically LESS lets you assign variable names to repetitive CSS styles, for example:

@color : #666;
.title {
color: @color
}

(note this is the simplest example of LESS, this css framework has many more uses )
and many other repetitive operations that are often routine with CSS.

Since you have the basics of HTML and CSS you should spend more time sharpening those existing skills, you should look for websites that you like and try to recreate them with html/css, and learn (if you don't already know ) slicing a PSD .

Generally you should feel very comfortable in laying out a simple html sketches from scratch without looking at online references too much,
examples:
header_wrapper 100% width; header container of max-width of 1000px , centered
page_wrapper 100% width; content centered same width as the header,
same for the footer,
you will see many examples of this on many websites,
practice with chrome developer tools with these 7 lessons: http://discover-devtools.codeschool.com/

Now the javascript side:
master the basics ,after that you can jump to jquery to use out of the box slide down , hide effects ...etc or you can just jump to jquery but understanding javascript will help you in the long road.
Then go back to javascript because you will need to spend more time on javascript than on html/css combined.

at this point you have a choice of taking your front end development skills to the next level by learning javascript frameworks or begin learning
the backend side of development, that is php and mysql.

Honey497

Learn JavaScript after HTML and CSS because it is use for form handling purpose.

kellyperth123

HTML (Hyper text markup language) is used for creating website. CSS (Cascaded style sheet) is used for form handling.

Strider64

If I had to do it all over again the following is the order I would do it.

The Tools to make better graphics (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effect, Dreamweaver, Netbeans

+1

auntnini

... and learn (if you don't already know) slicing a PSD .

Ugh! NO, no, no. Slicing an image creates a filled <table>. Do not use <table> for layouts.

Kevin2

kellyperth123;1303737 wrote:

CSS (Cascaded style sheet) is used for form handling.

Strider64;1303771 wrote:

If I had to do it all over again the following is the order I would do it.
[...]

I'll do another +1 there. Excellent advice.

auntnini;1303817 wrote:

Ugh! NO, no, no. Slicing an image creates a filled <table>. Do not use <table> for layouts.

Yeah that's the bleeding edge of Y2K web design.

root

IMHO you need to...

Learn the basics of HTML mark up, not really necessary to stick with HTML5 as that is coming in, it would be beneficial to know how to cater for backwards compatibility.

Design, compliance with access requirements for users who may need to use screen readers, are partially sighted or blind or have learning difficulties, ensuring your page is accessible is important and the most overlooked part of web design and using JavaScript or JQuery to set this up is the wrong way to deal with this access issue because the users screen reader in the browser or external may not understand or see this information set via those means.

JavaScript is a yes, JQuery not important.

CSS

PHP / ASP / C / Python

Apache Rewrites / Shell Scripts / CronJobs

And understanding how each element works with other parts of the web page, very important to know where and when to use PHP to generate something or to have it hard coded.

The problem with JavaScript frameworks like JQuery, MooTools, et al is that they are an eggs in one basked tool that relies on it not being buggy and others abilities. Sure they are designed to be cross browser but how does that actually help you understand the differences in browsers? Unless you dip your toes you won't know or understand and you will instead rely on others to make your site sparkle.

Time, this is something that you need to spend and develop your interest where it is best spent. For me its playing with JavaScript, HTML and PHP. Just see where things take you, understand the technologies involved and be a purist first.

jabeen100

You should to learn Java and c++ after the Html and css.

OliverMurphy

I went this way:

HTML -> CSS -> JAVA (for OOP) -> PHP -> SQL

Gray1989

OliverMurphy;1305385 wrote:

I went this way:

HTML -> CSS -> JAVA (for OOP) -> PHP -> SQL

I would refrain from using Java for browser-based tasks. JavaScript is able to reach a much wider audience, take up much less headroom than Java, and is powerful enough to even outperform Java for graphics-based tasks (by utilizing HTML5 Canvas and/or WebGL).

Strider64;1303771 wrote:

If I had to do it all over again the following is the order I would do it.

The Tools to make better graphics (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effect, Dreamweaver, Netbeans

Another +1 to that. Could maybe leave jQuery for last aswell. The less you rely on jQuery the better.

kellyperth123;1303737 wrote:

HTML (Hyper text markup language) is used for creating website. CSS (Cascaded style sheet) is used for form handling.

Form handling? No. The correct answer is "appearance".

Safeer008

That's good.
You have got the basic. I suggest you to work pratically to impliment what you have learnt. Than see in which direction are you going. What next you need in my suggestion is this sequence.

Head First PHP & MySQL
Head First Javascript
Head First Jquery
Head First Wordpress
Head First HTML5 programming

julianajones

I think almost every web designing languages you write here. These are enough for any designer

Further you learn volusion, wordpress etc

pitbuljain

Instead of this php and asp.net are good options

cssxperts

Hi dear, according to me there are many things that you need to learn after HTML & CSS if you want to become a good designer,,

albertdenim

Learn PHP & MySQL after HTML & CSS. Expert of php programmer undrstand that html and css is very helpful to design a website.